Department: Zoology
Email: ebraun@zoo.ufl.edu
Title Of Talk: Perspective from Zoology
Abstract: The early development of zoology as a science was been dominated by the examination of qualitative information from natural history. But the qualitative science of the 19th century developed into a highly quantitative field of inquery over the 20th century. The relationships among organisms, called their phylogeny, represents a logical organizing principle for biology. An example based upon the large-scale reconstruction of avian phylogeny is presented, showing that the available technology is sufficient to collect the data necessary to estimate the geneological relationships for ancient birds (and other groups of organisms). But there remain unsolved analytical challenges. Additional applications of mathematical methods in zoology will be discussed, to provide a flavor for the type and scale of problems being approached.
Last update made Mon May 1 19:14:06 EDT 2006.
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